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The KUT Longhorn Radio Network Presents: Mexican American Experience Collection

Audio recordings including interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community and their concerns in the series "The Mexican American Experience" and "A esta hora conversamos" from the Longhorn Radio Network, 1976-1982.

Louis Wilmot, Founding Member of LULAC / Elvira Chavarría: the future of the Mexican American Library Project

Guest Louis Wilmot, one of the founders of LULAC, discusses the organization’s early efforts to address segregation and discrimination through education, and UT librarian, Elvira Chavarría talks about the Mexican-American Collection, which recently acquired a series of LULAC’s historical papers. In the 1920s and 1930s, organizations like LULAC argued that education was the most effective way to address the problems facing Mexican Americans. Wilmot discusses how he came to this conclusion growing up in Corpus Christi and offers a history of LULAC and its predecessor the Order of the Sons of America. He also discusses the organization’s participation in court cases where they sought to protect Mexican Americans who were mistreated by the judicial system. When asked about the plight of educated Mexican Americans who still face discrimination, Wilmot responds that while there may be some discrimination, it is not as bad as it was in the past.

Chavarría then describes some of the documents the Mexican American Collection is interested in preserving. She explains that they want to collect everything they can on Mexican Americans in Texas, the Southwest, and the rest of the United States, in order to build a repository of Mexican American history available to both the UT and larger community. She then describes some of the collections they have already obtained, including the papers of George Sanchez, Alurista and other writers and historical figures.